The European Council formally approved the fifteenth package of economic sanctions against Russia on Friday, expanding the bloc's most extensive sanctions regime to target a sprawling network of third-country companies and individuals accused of helping Moscow evade existing trade restrictions and finance its war effort in Ukraine.
The package names 78 new entities and 42 individuals across Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, and Georgia that EU investigators identified as key nodes in sanctions-circumvention supply chains for dual-use technology, including semiconductor components, precision machine tools, and navigation equipment.
New measures also tighten energy export ceilings by lowering the price cap on Russian seaborne crude from $60 to $45 per barrel and introducing a mandatory hull-tracking registry for all tankers calling at EU ports to combat the growing Russian "shadow fleet" — an estimated 600 aging vessels operating without Western insurance coverage.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the package demonstrated the EU's "unwavering determination to ensure that sanctions are not merely announced but effectively enforced."
Russia's Foreign Ministry dismissed the measures as "economic self-harm masquerading as foreign policy" and warned of retaliatory restrictions on European agricultural imports and overflight rights.
